A follow up post after a huge year on the Shore and mulitple Whistler days. This fork is amazing. Once you find your spring rate, mine was 10lbs less than recommended, it works flawlessly. Plush in the rooty stuff and there when you go bigger. Talus perfect until.....I sent mine in for some well deserved new bushings and the fork has never been the same. Perhaps Fox needs to quality control they're contracted repair people cause my fork is essentially ruined. I am sending back for the second time with all kinds of compression and Talus problems. I can only hope it will be as good as it was new again someday. A few less chilis for the pain in the butt.

Strengths: Plush once you find the right pressure setting which is considerabley higher than the FOX recommended setting for my weight. Versitile if the settings are operating.

Weaknesses: The 100mm setting failed after 6 months and now the 130mm has failed also. In the shop and awaiting total cost of repair.

Bottom Line:

As previously mentioned I don't think I'd hand over this kind of money again unless I had some assurances from Fox that the problems previously mentioned had been resolved. Fortunate for me these forks have spent most of their time going down hill and jumping but lately I've been doing more XC and when you want to use them for what they were designed for you can't. Probably should have put the coin towatrds buying a dedicated XC bike.

Weaknesses: No small bump compliance. Either too plush or too rigid-any inbetween setting and you get the worst of both worlds.

Bottom Line:

These forks are overpriced and although the concept is good, the delivery is less than adequate. If you want a plush fork then don't get these. To get small bump compliance if you back off the air pressure then they bottom too easily. Conversely if you stiffen them up so you don't bottom then you have little to no small bump compliance. They may be fine for buff singletrack but if you get into any chunkiness these rigid forks are all over the place regardless of the rebound adjust. They were laughable on the shore.
Travel adjust wouldn't go to 5" within the first 2 months I got it and they can't be serviced anywhere but Fox so it was a pain to send into Fox and wait around for 2 wks to get them back. Great idea with the travel adjustment and I did use it on climbs but otherwise wouldn't consider these forks ever again.

Strengths: Easily the stiffest fork I've owned, certainly gives you an instant boost in confidence...which can be a bad thing :) Saved my butt too many times to remember. Must be weird but I like the lack of small bump sensitivity and only coming on for the bigger stuff. Which it handles nicely.

Weaknesses: High price and travel adjust coming a cropper after 6 months of use. I've got a Pike and it's travel adjust is still going strong after 4yr of use.

Bottom Line:

Great when it's working but such a shame I feel like I bought a 1st season product.

Weaknesses: Not as light as a DT or Manitou
nOT AS AFFORDABLE AS rs OR mANITOU

Bottom Line:

So far the fork has been great. I have it on my Ibis which is suppose to run a 140mm, but I have my bike build up more AM than trail/XC and it loves the extra travel of the Talas. Need to put more hours in before I can give final verdict, but so far so good.

Strengths: Crazy light. The most rigid for i've ever felt. Zero front to back movement even under hard braking. Ultra sensitive in the small stuff and still there for you for the big hits. Every indentation of the rebound actually does something and travel adjust works great. Simply the best through axle system i've seen and it looks sexy to boot!

Weaknesses: ummmmmm......nope i've got nothin......not very cheap....

Bottom Line:

Before i recieved the bike i was a bit worried about the durability of a 5lb air sprung fork. About 2 minutes of riding and all that was out the door. Without question the most functional and intelligent fork i've ever ridden. Doesn't have the out of the box butter like the 66 but also makes it feel like sloppy tank in comparison. A no nonsense fork that responds to every input it's given. Stable as anything at high speed and jumps like a dream. I'll post again end of season and sign off on the durability. Best fork i've ever owned by a country mile. Period